The Democratic candidate for President no longer wants to force millions of Americans to sell their AR-15s and similar firearms to the government.

At least, that’s the line her campaign is taking. Unnamed officials with the Kamala Harris campaign told the New York Times on Monday that the Vice President no longer supports many of the progressive policy stances she took during her first presidential run in 2019, including a mandatory buyback of civilian-owned “assault weapons.” Instead, her campaign said that she merely supports banning the sale of those guns moving forward.

The Harris Campaign confirmed the position change in an email to The Reload.

“Correct, the VP will not push for a mandatory buy back as president,” Lauren Hitt, a Harris spokesperson, told The Reload. “She has expressed support for red flag laws, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban.”

The about-face on gun confiscation and retreat to the more politically palatable, though still controversial, stance of an assault weapon sales ban signals the Harris Campaign will more or less track with President Joe Biden on gun policy. It comes amidst a broader shift by the Harris team to pivot back towards more moderate political stances with an eye toward a general election contest against former President Donald Trump this November. In addition to walking back her call for gun confiscation, the Harris campaign also told the Times that she no longer supports banning fracking, eliminating private health insurance to shift toward a single-payer system, or abolishing immigration enforcement.

Harris first floated the idea of pursuing a mandatory buyback of assault weapons at a September 2019 campaign event in New Hampshire. She reiterated her support for the idea on several occasions in public forums and in media interviews until she dropped out of the race in early December.

As recently as October of last year, Harris praised Australia’s 1996 semi-automatic gun ban and confiscation policy at a State Department event with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence,” she said. “Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in the United States. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way — as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.”

Prior to her campaign’s remarks on her shifting stance, however, the pivot already appeared to be underway. In her first public appearances after consolidating support to be the party’s replacement nominee, Harris touted gun-control measures much more in line with President Biden’s policy platform.

“We will work to pass universal background checks, Red Flag laws, and an assault weapons ban,” Harris said to a crowd of Democratic campaign staffers.

“They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom while they refuse to pass commonsense gun safety laws,” she later added at an American Federation of Teachers rally last week. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”

Those stances have also been echoed by nearly all of the candidates rumored to be on Harris’ shortlist for Vice President. That suggests the campaign may not shy away from running on strict gun control, just its most draconian forms.

UPDATE 7-30-2024 5:51 PM EASTERN: This piece has been updated with comments from the Kamala Harris campaign.